Days 9-10

Paul again -- We're in a town called Telavi in the western wine region of Georgia. We're staying with a family, who like every other Georgian we've met go above and beyond to make us feel at home. Later today the husband is going to take us around to different wineries and some more really old churches. Then we're going to watch him make some wine in his home-made wine making cask.  The white wine here is made with the skins on the grapes which gives it a rust hue -- kind of looks like ice tea.

Some really superficial comments and sweeping generalizations on Georgian habits and lifestyle based upon my casual observations:

1. Men chain smoke, and when they're not chain smoking, they're nibbling on sunflower seeds. I think eating sunflower seeds is a national pastime -- that and idling away the day on a bench along the road watching people stroll by.
2. Cab and mashrutka drivers drive like NYC taxi drivers on meth.
3. There are no rules of the road -- anything goes.
4.  Georgian white wine is really really good.
5.  Tomatoes are a huge part of their diet.
6.  Even when they know you don't speak Georgian, they still speak Georgian to you -- then after awhile, as you look at them blankly, they just shrug their shoulders.
7.  They love Americans -- when you say your're american they give you the thumbs up. There is a street on the outskirts of Tblisi by the airport named George W. Bush.
8.  Farmers have it rough -- no mechanized farming equipment for the most part -- the horse and mule drawn wagons and farming implements are still in pervasive use.
9.  They are deeply religious -- everytime they drive or walk by a church or other sacred site (and they are literally everywhere) they cross themselves.
10. If Tblisi were a person it should be locked away in a sanatarium.
11. The people of Kazbegi cut off their dogs ears for some reason
12.  They're inveterate litter bugs -- but lovable litter bugs

I think we plan to stay in Georgia for a a couple more days and then head down to the homeland.  There's alot more to see here and I wish we had more time but Armenia beckons.  The Caucus mountain deserve alot more attention -- meaning a long trek or two -- but our time is limited.